‘It’s incomparable to modern clothing’: How cult vintage finds became fashion’s highest status symbol

After Bella Hadid made a case for rare vintage finds at Fashion Month, Olivia Petter examines how second-hand shopping became quite so cool

(The Independent/Getty)

The future of fashion is the past. Take one look at today’s trend circuit and you’ll see it’s no longer about finding the best new thing but rummaging further back. Vintage clothing lives again.

Of course, the fashion set’s fondness for second-hand clothing is hardly, ahem, new. Vintage items have long held high status among those in the know. Hark back to the mid-Noughties when wannabe rock stars and their equally eager groupies swanned around north London’s pubs looking like they’d been swallowed by Camden Stables. There might be a tired pair of brogues. Possibly a battered leather jacket. Maybe even a cravat. And if you were Luke Pritchard from The Kooks, you might have all three.

Today, vintage is less about dressing head-to-toe in wavey garms and more about finding a singular item that is in keeping with your individual sense of style and can be seamlessly integrated with contemporary clothing. Oh, and you’ll probably pay a lot more for it, too. Because as designers continue to fuel their collections with looks inspired by the Nineties and early Noughties, vintage curios have become more coveted than ever before.

Consider model Bella Hadid, who famously styles herself and has stepped out in several collectors items in between shows across Fashion Month. These included a Junya Watanabe denim dress from 2002, a pair of green embroidered trousers from John Galliano’s Dior era (1996 to 2011), and a black Comme Des Garçons sleeveless jumper from 2008. Meanwhile, the model-of-the-moment also wore an archival 2009 Prada look to a Miu Miu dinner in Paris. Elsewhere, we saw industry It-girl Emily Ratajkowski channelling Carrie Bradshaw in a John Galliano for Dior newspaper dress at a Harper’s Bazaar event during New York Fashion Week.

For a different NYFW party, the My Body author arrived wearing a Michael Kors-era Céline dress paired with a Christian Dior saddlebag. Ratajkowski also chose an old Versace number for this year’s Met Gala – when celebrities typically wear bespoke designer ensembles – where she arrived in a heavily beaded bodice and embellished silk skirt from the Italian label’s spring 1992 collection. A true gem in the vintage treasure trove.

Another fashion figure firmly establishing themselves as an archival dresser in recent months is Kendall Jenner, who has been seen sporting numerous 1990s looks at high-profile events. Ensembles have included a 2007 Givenchy skirt suit, a 1999 Dolce & Gabbana leather skirt she wore as a mini dress, and the 1997 Dolce & Gabbana floral co-ord she wore to the wedding of her sister, Kourtney Kardashian in May.

Even Rihanna has been building a luxury vintage collection, having been seen in everything from 1990’s Gucci to early Noughties Roberto Cavalli in the last year. On TikTok, writer and seasoned vintage shopper Camille Charriere revealed that she recently lost out to the singer on a baby blue Tom Ford for Gucci fur coat. “I agreed with the shop to put it aside and have it as a rental for my wedding day,” she explains in the video. “I thought that I would have it as my something blue [...] guess who decided that week to go into the shop. Rihanna. Or her stylist.” Whoever it was, they offered to pay full price. And so Charriere’s something blue went to RiRi.

@camillecharriere Replying to @grace.gilpin that time riri stole my wedding look #storytime #weddingtiktok #somethingblue #secondhand ♬ original sound - Camille Charrière

“Vintage clothing has absolutely become more coveted in recent years,” says Gregory Chester, who runs the One of a Kind archive in Notting Hill, which counts Kate Moss and Sienna Miller among its clientele – they also provided Hadid with that ’09 Prada look. “The rarity and quality of the clothing we sell is incomparable to modern-day fashion,” he says. “Clients don’t want to wear what anyone else can find.”

Like most luxury archives, One of a Kind operates on an appointment-only basis. You can shop a select number of items online via 1st Dibs, including a Jean Paul Gaultier peach silk gown from 2002 (£2,650) and a Vivienne Westwood couture red taffeta ball gown from 1996 (£17,500). The most popular brands sought by Chester’s clients are John Galliano and Alexander McQueen, while the most sought-after eras are, in line with the zeitgeist, the late Nineties and early Noughties.

“The appeal of vintage is different for each person and for each generation as new pieces are always entering the vintage market as people look to the past to set trends for the future,” says Ari, the owner of @kiko.vintage, which is one of the most popular Instagram vintage accounts.

“I would say that early Noughties Chanel and Dior are some of the most sought-after seasons (2002 and 2003 are personal favourites of mine) but there’s also a huge appetite for the minimalism we saw from Issey Miyake, Helmut Lang and Celine in the late Nineties,” she says. “I’d say we’re moving away from logo mania and into an appreciation of classic silhouettes, and minimalist design.”

Kendall Jenner in a Jean Paul Gaultier co-ord from 1994 (Getty)

The items Ari and other Instagrammers sell are marginally more affordable than those available from bricks-and-mortar collectors, with current items for sale including a 2000s Fendi shoulder bag (£452) and a 2002 embroidered Dolce & Gabbana skirt (£176). “The appeal of vintage is different for each person and for each generation as new pieces are always entering the vintage market as people look to the past to set trends for the future,” she adds.

While her site has always been popular among fashion insiders, Ari has noticed how, over the years, an increasing number of celebrity stylists have been approaching her, including Choe & Chenelle – they style Kourtney Kardashian and Olivia Rodrigo – and Dani Michelle, whose clients include Hailey Bieber and Nicola Peltz Beckham. “They constantly feature vintage collections such as mine on their clients and show how secondhand clothes can work alongside the work of emerging designers to form timeless looks,” she says.

Another common resource for vintage finds is peer-to-peer websites such as Vestiaire Collective, which refers to its products as “pre-loved”. “We’re seeing that celebrity and pop culture is driving trends and impacting consumer shopping habits,” says a spokesperson for the site, noting how demand for a Fendi Baguette surged following the launch of the Sex and the City reboot, And Just Like That.

“At Vestiaire Collective, the vintage category has been one of our fastest categories for the last few years, currently growing at plus 12 per cent YoY,” they add. “The numerous exhibitions and re-editions from major luxury maisons has also helped drive a growing interest in vintage pieces.”

The benefits of buying vintage are obvious. To the sartorial show ponies among us, wearing one-off items offers a unique aesthetic. But there is also the added environmental aspect because existing items won’t require energy expenditure in order to be made. Nor will they cause any harm to garment makers.

“In a world where we crave for new items, designer vintage opens the door to the new old, so to speak, allowing for regeneration in fashion instead of mass consumption,” says a spokesperson at Archive Closet, a luxury vintage curator based in Ibiza – items include a Dior slip dress worn by Paris Hilton and a Fendi gown worn by Sharon Stone at the 2002 Cannes Flim Festival.

While very few people can afford the archival items we’ve recently seen on celebrities, the effect of seeing more A-list stars sporting second-hand items could have a seismic effect on consumers. “We can’t underestimate the huge influence of models and celebrities with vast platforms to encourage us to overconsume clothes we most likely don’t need, which is having a hugely negative impact on the planet and garment makers,” says fair fashion campaigner Venetia La Manna. “TikTok loves Bella Hadid and her recent style evolution, so no doubt her use of vintage pieces will serve to help the slow fashion movement and encourage folks to see second-hand clothing as cool and aspirational.”

The good news is that, much like a bottle of France’s finest Château Margaux, vintage clothing is only going to get more valuable, meaning this is one trend that’s likely to stand the test of time. “The pieces we sell will only become more rare and valuable over the years,” says Chester. “There will always be a demand to buy a piece of fashion history.” There certainly will – unless you’re looking to revisit the wardrobe of a tired Troubador, whose idea of vintage might have been a little naive.